Welcome Committee
by WriteEditLife
Summary: Sweet Pea and Veronica meet again when the southside serpents join Riverdale High is 2x10.
1. Chapter 1

Sweet Pea wasn't in the best mood. He had been ecstatic when Southside High closed and he learned he would be attending Riverdale High with Toni, Fangs and Jughead. It was a much better school, with better facilities and actual learning, no Ghoulies or jingle jangle in the hallways. But now, here he was, walking up the large, white steps that lead to the front doors of Riverdale High, leading the pack of Serpents into northsider territory right behind Jones.

They were all wearing their Serpent leather jackets, dressed like it was any other day, and not the day they were all going to be surrounded by northsiders. Sweet Pea's mask of intimidation set on his face as he followed Jones through the large, wooden doors of the school, finally stepping into a clean, new and expensive looking hallway filled with students, which was a far cry from the run down, graffiti covered halls he was used to. _So this is how the other half does school._

The bustle of early morning before classes was apparent around them, but students still parted like the sea and parted at the whole group as they walked further into the room. Jones seemed to be enjoying the attention, strutting down the hallway like he owned the place. Toni was peering around at the walls, lockers and other students with a curious look in her eye, but her fingers were fidgeting with the blue flannel tied around her waist, which was a dead giveaway that she was nervous too. Fangs had his head ducked down a bit and look scared. Sweet Pea really couldn't blame him though, his last northsider encounter was Andrews pointing a gun in his face.

Jones turned right to walk down the main hallway and Sweet Pea followed, his tall frame towering over the other students and also giving him a clear view of his surroundings. _Always helpful._ It was then that he spotted a table set up a few feet away from their current position, jutting out into the hallway so it couldn't be missed. But Sweet Pea almost did because of the familiar raven haired, pearl wearing princess standing behind it. _Veronica Lodge was their welcoming committee._ Sweet Pea would've bet money it was going to be Betty Cooper, so this day was already full of surprises.

Sweet Pea moved to stand beside Jughead as the group walked closer to the table and his eyes briefly left Veronica's to survey the papers and items on the table, as well as the appearance of both Andrews and Sheriff Keller's kid. Andrews looked bored, not even offering a smile or a greeting to Jughead, while Veronica fussed with some of the papers on the table, making sure they were all in order, before looking up to provide the group with a wide, teeth bearing grin.

The difference between her appearance now and the last time he saw her, running off the stage at the Whyte Wyrm was like night and day. Veronica was dressed in a conservative black dress, with two bright metallic looking flowers adorning the collar. Her hair and makeup was perfectly done, and even her black nail polish was bright against her tan skin as she clasped her hands together in front of her. Something was off though. _No pearls._ Veronica's usual strand of pearls was absent from her slender neck, her high collar taking its usual place, but a small necklace with one teardrop pearl did hang around her neck, and a tiny pearl bracelet lay against her right wrist, which Sweet Pea noticed when he finally managed to tear his gaze from her face. _Old habits die hard._

"Friends," Veronica said brightly to the group when all the teenage serpents had stopped at the table. "On behalf of the students and faculty here at Riverdale High, welcome to your new school," Veronica stated proudly, flashing her winning smile again.

"To ease this transition, I've set up a registration desk where you can get your locker assignments, class schedules and a list of sports and extracurriculars," she continued, motioning to the various packs of paper on the table as she spoke. She captivated everyone's attention, looking between all the serpents, even back at her boyfriend, but Sweet Pea noticed she was somewhat avoiding his gaze.

He hadn't stopped staring at her since she began speaking, his intense brown eyes baring into her, unable to believe he was really this close to her. Aside from standing at Andrews' front door, it was the closest they'd ever been standing to each other, but at least she wasn't in his face threatening to call the sheriff. She was providing helpful information so he could be a successful high school student in unfamiliar territory.

Sweet Pea continued to stare, completely drawn in by her beauty and personality. He had never had the chance to really take in her presence, since their previous encounters including threatening him, shooting a gun in the air to break up a fight, and singing at the bar before getting emotional and running off stage mid song. Veronica Lodge was calm, composed, intelligent, authoritative, compassionate and clearly in charge. _He was riveted._

It was at that moment that Veronica finally looked over and meet his gaze with a warm smile, and he was so sure she could read the intensity of his thoughts about her that he glanced down to collect himself. When he lifted his gaze again, he noticed Andrews was giving him some serious side eye, clearly affected by his attention to Veronica. Sweet Pea smirked a bit at that. _Serves Red right._

"We encourage each and every one of you to drink deeply from the cup that is fair Riverdale," Veronica finished with a proud tone, which Andrews just looked confused next to her. All of the serpents and even Keller's son had their focus locked on Veronica, who was used to and clearly expected to captivate her audience. Whatever had been holding her down that night at the bar was clearly no longer an issue. After a beat of silence, Veronica looked right at Sweet Pea again, a confident smirk on her dark lips and a happy glint in her eyes. This time he couldn't look away.

"Stand down, Eva Peron," yelled Cheryl Blossom from somewhere in front of them. Sweet Pea looked up to see the red headed maple syrup heiress descending the wide staircase in a cherry red cocktail dress, matching stilettos and huge black spider brooch on her shoulder. _Topaz is going love this._ To her left was Reggie Mantle, the Bulldogs football captain that Sweet Pea had not yet had the pleasure of beating the crap out of. A hoard of cheerleaders followed the pair and it was clearly a privileged turf war situation if Sweet Pea ever saw one. _Must be her minions._

Sweet Pea saw Veronica sigh and look back at Jughead before turning around to fully face the vampire wannabe headed straight for them.

"There is the school spirit I so fondly remember," he heard Jughead quip beside him, as Sweet Pea crossed his arms over his chest and widened his stance, fully prepared for a fight.

"Cheryl," Veronica answered flatly. "No one invited fascist Barbie to the party," she continued through gritted teeth. _There's that vicious wit._

"Wrong, Veronica. No one invited southside scum to our school. Listen up ragamuffins," The red head yelled, while Sweet Pea shared a knowing look with Topaz about the attitude they were about to witness firsthand.

"I will not allow Riverdale High's above average GPA to suffer because of classrooms that are overcrowded with underachievers," Cheryl practically hissed, causing Topaz to huff and throw him a look that meant he was going to get an earful of rant about fascist Barbie later.

"Please, do us all a favor and find some other school to deface with your hardscrabble ways," Cheryl finished, a polite fake smile on her cherry red lips with her long red nails topping as she hands her hands together in front of her.

"Why don't you come over here and say that to my face," Toni hissed at Cheryl, moving around the table to get right in Cheryl's face. Sweet Pea, Fangs and Jughead all moved to back her up.

"Happily, queen of the buskers," Cheryl added harshly, stepping up to Toni, clearly not afraid of the jacket or the fiery personality wearing it.

"Okay, guys. Everyone," Archie interjected, attempting to stand between Toni and Cheryl. Sweet Pea's gaze went from being focused on Cheryl to locked on Andrews. "Can we just put our northside southside differences apart and start over? A new slate?" Andrews stated, looking between Cheryl and to his amusement, right back at Sweet Pea. _He cannot be serious._

Of course, Andrews also showed up on the southside with a gun and pointed it at gang members, so he's not exactly intelligent. Sweet Pea was about to make this point out load, but Mantle beat him to it.

"You don't speak for the bulldogs, Andrews and need I remind you these greaser snakes showed up at your place, trying to kick your ass," Mantle spoke, throwing a pointed look at Archie. Sweet Pea was getting annoyed and wanted to punch Mantle in the face even more than when Sweet Pea had showed up and Mantle challenged him at Andrews' house. Without a second thought, Sweet Pea shoved past Topaz who was standing in front of him and lunged for Mantle. "Time to finished what we started," he spoke smartly, but stopped in his tracks when he felt Jughead and Fangs' arms hold him back.

The next thing he felt was a rather dainty hand rest on his leather jacket covered left forearm, and Sweet Pea knew without breaking his gaze from Mantle that the sudden warm touch had come from Veronica.

"I'm so over the toxic masculinity in this hallway right now," Veronica announced loudly, her voice laced with both anger and annoyance, although she turned to stand more next to Sweet Pea and face Mantle. _Good to know the badass is still in there._

"Alright! That's enough pomp and circumstance!" came the voice of a man back near the front doors of the school. Sweet Pea and the rest of the serpents turned to face the voice, which clearly belonged to a school administrator. "Everyone let's get the class, now," he finished and Sweet Pea turned back to see that the northsider had backed off a bit at those words.

It was at that moment that Sweet Pea realized Veronica's hand was gone from his arm, and in his rage he couldn't recall which one of them had pulled away first. Sweet Pea's gaze was focused back on Mantle as he began to walk towards the staircase and he felt Jughead give him a small shove to pick up the pace. He didn't meet Veronica's gaze again but he could make out the rustling of papers, so she was busying herself with organizing again.

Sweet Pea and the rest of the serpents stomped towards the stairs until Jughead guided them into a student lounge where they just cooled off and hang out until the bell rang. Sweet Pea's head was still swimming between the confrontation with Mantle and Veronica's touch. He knew he would be seeing Veronica, since they both went to the same school now, but he really wasn't expecting her to reach out and touch him like that. Sweet Pea sighed, as he raised his right arm and hesitantly touched the leather of his jacket where her hand had been, but the warmth was gone. _But it had been there. And her pearls had touched it as well._


	2. Chapter 2

Today was not going as planned and Veronica was irritated about that, but the determined smile on her face never faltered. The new student transfers from Southside High had arrived at Riverdale High this morning for school and a second Bulldogs vs. Serpents fight had nearly broken out as soon as the serpents stepped into the building.

Veronica had been manning the welcome committee table, an organized event she put together to help the southsiders get acclimated to their new school, including help with their lockers and classes and even good extracurricular activities they could do.

Then Cheryl and Reggie crashed the welcome, only to exercise their northsider power and try to get the southsiders kicked out. Veronica had been so focused on welcoming the southsiders, so forgot about keeping the peace between the northsiders as well.

She couldn't afford to get distracted like that again. Her family was counting on her. And he was definitely a distraction. He, being the tall Serpent she has locked eyes with that night at the Whyte Wyrm and when he had shown up to challenge Archie at his house. She hadn't seen him since she ran off the stage at FP's party, but their silent exchange had been playing over and over in her mind.

She hadn't expected him to be that close to her. But there he was, leaning over the welcome table she created, his eyes staring intently at her as she happily explained the system she created. She has flashed him a confident smile when she was done and of course, the moment had been interrupted by Cheryl.

Then when that female serpent had lunged at Cheryl, she suddenly found herself inches away from that sinister serpent that had fascinated her since the first time they met. She hadn't planned to reach out and grab him, but with both Jughead and that other serpent holding him back from Reggie, she somehow knew he wouldn't move. And if she was honest with herself, she was curious about his touch. So being that close to him, she had just reached out, the way she had with her gaze that night at the Whyte Wyrm.

Weatherbee's words had started her and Veronica had released his arm as they both turned towards his voice, effectively breaking the tension. She had busied herself with reorganizing the table and forced herself not to look back as he stomped away.

Now, it was later in the day and the serpents were hanging out with Jughead in the student lounge. Veronica walking into the room clutching her black Prada handbag with both hands and approached the group, breathing out her nerves and plastering on a happy smile.

She spotted him sitting on a couch with Kevin, but she didn't want to seem too eager to know his name, so she started with serpents on the couch opposite him.

"I don't think we've properly met," Veronica spoke as she stepped up to the nearest couch and addressed the group of new students in front of her. She was closest to the serpent girl with pink hair that had gone toe to toe with Cheryl. "I'm Veronica Lodge," she spoke assertively, thrusting out her right hand for the girl to shake.

"Of the Park Avenue, Lodges," Veronica heard Jughead tease from her left, where he sat in a plaid armchair eating chips. Of course, he's eating instead of helping. Of all times for Betty to be MIA.

The girl glanced at Jughead before sitting upright on the couch and turning towards Veronica's outstretched hand. "Toni. Topaz," she spoke, shaking Veronica's hand strongly, her face calm and neutral so Veronica couldn't gauge a reaction about her family name.

"Oh, like the purple colored gemstone," Veronica quipped with a truly surprised tone, happy to connect the name with something she was more familiar with. Toni laughed at that comment, dropping her hand and offering a shy smile.

"Love it," Veronica commented, giving Toni's whole ensemble a once over. Veronica could feel his eyes on her again and it took everything she had not to glance his way. Can't be too obvious.

"And I'm Josie McCoy," interjected Josie. "Formerly of The Pussycats. Now just Josie," she finished weakly, looking at Veronica a bit lost.

"And this is Kevin," Josie said, gesturing to Kevin so was sitting next to the tall serpent. Veronica sneaked a glance at him to find he had also looked over at Kevin, before glancing over at the other serpent she didn't know.

"What's your name?" she heard Kevin ask, which broke her from the reverie of staring at the mysterious serpent, whose name still eluded her. Veronica glanced over at the other boy, sitting comfortably in the black leather armchair opposite Kevin, with his legs crossed and a single strand of red Twizzlers in his hand.

"Fogarty," he answered smoothly. "But you can call me Fangs," he continued, tilting his head at Kevin, who offered him a small smile.

"Your last name's Keller right?" he asked, pointing to Kevin with his Twizzler. Kevin looked a bit confused, his brow furrowing at the directness of the question.

"How did you know that?" he asked slowly, genuine surprise on his face.

"Joaquin and I used to hang out. He talked about you all the time," Fangs spoke easily, as Kevin quirked an eyebrow at his words.

Joaquin? What a throwback. Kevin had been so devastated by that betrayal, Veronica's heart truly felt for him when she saw the heartbroken look on Kevin's face while Joaquin spilled everything in Archie's garage.

Veronica realized that her mysterious serpent was the only one left to be introduced. She was finally going to be able to put a name with that face that had haunted her thoughts since he towered in the doorway of Archie's house.

"You guys! Yes, you! Come with me!" Weatherbee's voice echoed through the student lounge, as he angrily gestured their group forward, to move out into the hallway. "Now!" Weatherbee yelled, which was enough to get herself, Kevin, Josie and Jughead into gear, and she noticed Toni, Fangs and the other serpent rise to follow them.

Veronica went first, leading the pack, and her expression turned ice cold when her eyes landed on a smirking Reggie Mantle who was practically jumping up and down in the middle of the hallway. Weatherbee came to stop next to the smirking jock and glanced down at the school seal on the floor.

Veronica's jaw dropped and her heart sank when she took in the green serpent snake that had been haphazardly spray painted over the school seal. She heard the other serpents and Jughead move in around her, the tension in the moment radiating off of them.

"Which of you defaced our school seal with this graffiti?" Weatherbee inquired angrily, pointed down at the snake on the ground.

"This is what they do, Principal Weatherbee. They tag their turf," Reggie explained in an all too innocent tone.

"Oh my god, Reggie can you be any more transparent?" Veronica nearly laughed, mixing it with her tone of disgust and annoyance. Reggie actually nodded in response.

"Effective immediately, no gang behavior of any kind will be tolerated in my school. As of this moment, no more serpent jackets," Weatherbee explained angrily.

"What?!" Veronica heard the tall serpent exclaim loudly, which was backed up by both Fangs and Jughead's reactions to Weatherbee's words. This was getting out of hand.

"NO MORE SERPENT JACKETS! All tattoos need to be covered. Possession of any gang paraphernalia whatsoever will lead to immediate suspension! Are we clear?" Weatherbee stated loudly at the group. Veronica chanced a look at the other serpents and Jughead was trying to calm his obvious anger, while the mysterious serpent's jaw was clenched and he looked murderous. If she wasn't so pissed at Reggie she would have found that look made the serpent even more attractive.

"That's all," Weatherbee stated, the tone of finality in his voice clear, as well as the look of clear hatred on his face for the vandalism. He missed Reggie's smirk at the group, but the serpents and Veronica sure caught it. The tall serpent looked ready to pound Reggie, the anger radiating from his body, his fists clenching tightly at his sides as he huffed out frustrated breaths.

Veronica was transfixed by his presence, the anger in his appearance matching how she felt exactly, but she had never seen the raw power of it displayed so openly in front of her. As a Lodge, she was always taught to conceal her feelings, as they could made her appear weak or make her vulnerable to attacks. But watching him, Veronica felt like displaying that power would make her even more unstoppable. It certainly made him more appealing. She thought she had seen him mad that night at Archie's and later as he stood in the rain over Archie's body, the wild expression on his face. But now, this was his true anger and he let it permeate every fiber of his being, harnessing it like a power, without having to speak a word. Veronica wanted more.

She briefly wanted to reach out and touch him again, as though physical contact might connect them. But she was so taken with his fierceness she was rooted to the spot. Even as he turned to walk back into the student lounge and the others followed him, Veronica just watched. She finally understood her mother's loyalty to her father. That power she felt inside of her, that anger she harnessed and fueled to protect her family and their interests. He understood that. He felt that kind of power and used it.

After that night at the Whyte Wyrm, Veronica had managed to convince herself that their silent connection had been the product of her conflicted state, and Archie's harsh words. But deep down she knew the truth. Veronica and this serpent were much more similar, although raised on opposite sides of the tracks. They had the same family loyalty. They knew the stakes. They knew the game. They knew the knew the consequences. And they knew how to win. Together.

He could have punched out Reggie at any moment, the same way he took down Archie at the rumble, but underneath that impatient harshness and brash demeanor, he knew when to show his skin and when to shed it. Like a serpent. She could learn a lot from that. She craved it.

Now if she could just learn his name…


End file.
